Amerasaia Journal 1.1 (March, 1971)
Table of Contents
- "A Message to Our Readers." Unsigned Editorial. "We also know that many people are ... concerned about the fate of Asian-American communities and are trying very hard to see if they can make the lives of their immigrant brothers and those who live in ethnic communities a little bit better. [...] We realize that there have been numerous perceptions that others in this nation have had about Asian-Americans, as well as a myriad of self-perceptions that each Asian American has embodied. At one time, we were perceived as a 'heathen' race to be dealt with forcibly and with little concern for our basic human rights, while at other times as a successful minority that should be emulated by others. [...] Our purpose in initiating this journal resulted from these seemingly contradictory perceptions and self-images during various phases in the Asian-American experience."
The editors express gratitude to Warren Furutani of the JACL for agreeing to be interviewed. They also apologize for losing the tape after an interview with Mr. Chin Ho of Honolulu.
- "New York Chinatown Today: Community in Crisis" by Rocky Chin [Rockwell Chin]. Reprinted in Roots: An Asian American Reader. Rocky Chin is described in the contributors' notes as a "city planner from Storrs, Connecticut."
- "Yung Wing and the Americanization of China" by Bill Lann Lee. An essay on Yung Wing (1828-1912), a Chinese statesman who graduate from Yale College in 1854, becoming the first Chinese to receive an American education. Bill Lann Lee is identified in Contributors' notes as a Yale senior from Harlem, New York.
- "The Political and Economic Effects of Urban Renewal on Ethnic Communities: A Case Study of San Francisco's Japantown" by Sheridan Tatsuno. Sheridan Tatsuno is identified as a "Yale junior in urban studies from San Juan, California."
- Jade Snow Wong and the Fate of Chinese-American Identity by Lowell Chun-Hoon. Author is identified as a Yale senior from Honolulu, Hawaii.
- Interview with Warren Furutani, National Community Involvement Coordinator, the Japanese American Citizens League (Los Angeles, California). Warren Furutani, a long-time Los Angeles community activist, had a regular column in Gidra in 1971, "The Warren Report."
This interview covers the newly emergent "Asian Movement." Furutani knows the Los Angeles Asian American activist community best, but makes positive allusions to the emergence of east coast and Midwest expressions. "All it is is that in each area -- you know, regardless of it's Pacific Northwest, California, New York, New Haven, Chicago, anywhere -- there seems to be something starting. And this acts as a positive reinforcement type of thing because it's not a thing where we have had to start it, or that we've had to send people from the 'Central Office' down to start it, it's just popped up. And this means that everybody is starting to feel the need for an Asian Movement."
Near the end of the interview, the editors ask Furutani about the Third World Students strikes at Bay Area universities -- and the explicit borrowing from black power rhetoric in those protest actions. Furutani acknowledges that appropriation, but suggests the Asian American movement is developing its own language:
"I agree with you that in the beginning when the Asian American movement started on the campus, everything we did was defined from the Black framework. When I give speeches my rhetoric is related to the Blacks. We know we became a yellow carbon copy of the Black Movement and the Brown Movements, right? But now we are being forced into our own thing. For example, in looking at the community and really getting into it and getting off the campus and really working and communicating with other people we have seen that there are intimacies within our community that cannot be generalized by a definition of Blackness, you know. It is very naive to think like that. Syndromes like the "endryo" [enryo] within the Japanese community; the Family Associations and the Benevolent Associations within Chinatowns, all of these things are much different than the Black and Brown Movements." (Furutani)
Poems
- "A Poem for the People" by Ray Lou. An anti-war poem: "Mrs. Henry Watches the late news / Rioting in the City of Brotherly Love / Longhaired scum chanting / We ain't going"
- "Desperation" by Paul Suarez, Jr. Paul Suarez is identified in the Contributors' notes as the President of the Filipino Student Association at San Joaquin College in Stockton, California.
A poem of Filipino identity:
"Over half the world, he sailed
the sea
To come to this land and
its history.
The crops in the field, the grapes
on the vine,
The Filipino has come to
the end of the line."
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- Amerasia Journal (1971-present) Amardeep Singh